Lee County, Illinois - The whole text, 1881 (part 7 of 24)

Met/wdist Episcopal Clnireh. - The first Methodist organization within the limits of the township was at tiie house of Levi Camp, at Knox Grove, about thirty-five years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. John Skinner, Mr. and Mrs. Vertrees, Joseph, Miriam and Sarah Vertrees, Mrs. Levi Ellsworth, Mrs. Dr. Heath, Mrs. John Clink, Joseph Knox and his family, were early members; also Mr. and Mrs. John Barnes, Albert Linn and his wife. Skinner Pratt and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Wood. These parties were then living around or near Knox Grove. Nearly all of them were first members. For quite a number of years the society was supplied by circuit preachers. Elder Julian was a very early preacher in this vicinity. Milton Hana and U. P. Golliday were others. For several years meetings were held in the town hall at the village of Sublette. W. H. Smith was one of the first pastors at the " Hall." In 1870 a church was built and was dedicated in 1871. The ministers of the church since have been : F. F. Farmiloe, Wm. A. Cross, Philo Gorton, T. C. Youngs, E. Brown, W. H. Records, and M. C. Smith (supplied). The ofiicers of the church at present are W. W. Ireland, W. R. Long, C. Brown, John H. Gentry, trustees; W. R. Long, Mrs. W. W. Ireland, C. Brown, E. Lewis, Mrs. Joel Cook, Statira Crawford, stewards, and Ida Ireland, recording steward. But very few of the early members are left, they either having died or moved away.

Congregational Church. - The organization of this society was effected April 20, 1871. Rev. E. Baker was the first pastor. Meetings were at first held in the town hall. The officers were : John Methven and Elias Purdy, deacons ; Levi Mead, clerk ; Russell M. Brown, treasurer. There were about thirty original members, among whom were John Methven and wife, Mrs. Walter Morse, Mrs. Jane Ells, E. Purdy and wife, Russell Brown and his family, Wm. Brown and wife, H. C. Chapman and wife, Levi Mead and wife. A few weeks after the organization of the soeiet}' a church was begun, wliich cost al)oiit $5,000. The officers of the church are E. Purdy, jr., and Chas. Katch, deacons ; Edward Fessenden, John Tourtillott and E. Purdy, jr., trustees; Chas. H. Ingals, treasurer E. Purdy, clerk. The first Sabbath-school was superintended by Russell Brown, under whom it flourished. Mr. Edward Fessenden is the present superintendent.

Chxirch of the Evangelical Association of North America. - This society built their church in 1864, on the N.W. J of Sec. 35, at a cost of $2,<>00. This is a branch from the church of the same denomination at Perkins' Grove, Bureau county. The services are all in German. The preachers who officiate at this writing are the Revs. Woehr and Fry, this being in the Perkins Grove circuit and Mendota district. The Sabbatii-school in connection with the church has an average membership of about 55. J. C. Speilman is the superintendent. The trustees are Messrs. Barth. Richert and Speilman. The membership at present consists of a dozen or more families.

Roman Catholic Church. - The organization of this church was effected in the fall of 1848. Meetings were first held at the iiouse of Bartholomew Theiss. Among the first families of the churcii were the Steins, Katzenbargers, Theisses, Beckers, Smiths, Lauer, Krebs, and others. Rev. N. Steele was the first priest. In 1853 a church was built on Sec. 32, on land owned by A. Stein. A parsonage was also built. This burned in 1869, since which the church has not iiad a regular priest. The Catholic church built in the village of Sublette in 1868 is a branch of this, also the German Catholic church built a few years ago in May township. Only seven of the original members are left, and meetings are held in the old church only a 'iew times a year.

Schools. - The school land was sold about 1850, and the town was soon divided into ten districts. On each of these is a good schoolhouse. There is also a school in connection with the Catholic church at the village. As early as 1841 there w-as a Sunday-school started in the Tourtillott neighborhood. This was not in connection with any church. The prime movers in this work were Father Tourtillott and Mrs. Angier. It was not continued more than a year or two. The first school was in a log house on Tom Fessenden's farm ; the next was in a slab building on the farm of Thomas Tourtillott. This was a structure used at first for preemption purposes, and was never intended for a school-house. It was afterward known as the " sheep pen." Maria Codman, of New York, was the first teacher here. Tlie next school in this vicinity was taught in the winter by Joseph Carey in Mrs. Tourtillott's house; and the ne.\t of any importance in Mrs. Richardson's house bv John Bacon, about 1850. Tiie third school in the town of Sublette was in the log school-house on Sec. 5. Mrs. Clute, sister of Jonathan Peterson, tauglit tlie first summer school here about 1844. The winter school held here was for several years quite important, being well attended by an advanced class of students.

War Record

Sublette has a war record of which her people are justly proud. According to the population and area, it seems almost incredible that so many men should have been furnished within the short space of four and a half years. From the beginning to the close of the great civil war Sublette sent fathers and sons into the service, till her energies seemed all but exhausted. When the great struggle was nearly ended, and the town shorn of its strength, a number of men were hired ; nearly all of them from outside of the township. The quota of troops for Sublette was 204, fourteen of whom were veterans. Of the veterans who first enlisted from within the township but two were afterward hired, the others having volunteered their services.

The Lee County Guards. - Designated as Co. F, 13th Inf., was mustered into the military service September 20, 1878, by Maj. W. G. Coulter, with a membership of sixty-one men, which augmented till, at its annual inspection and muster, March 31, 1879, it numbered ninety-eight, and 103 at the annual inspection and muster, March 31, 1880; thirty-four more than any other infantry company in the State of Illinois.

The Guards have been the recipients of many invitations to participate in public demonstrations and ceremonies, among which were decoration of soldiers' graves by the citizens of Mendota, May 30, 1879 ; the Guards being escort for procession, and were handsomely entertained by the city.

They encamped with the 3d reg. I.N.G., at Freeport, July 3, 4 and 5, 1879, being entertained by tiie public. They encamped four days with the 1st brig. I.K.G., in September 1879, at South Park, Chicago, at which time eighty-one men reported for duty. On November 5, at a reception tendered Gen. Grant by the citizens of Mendota, the Guards had the honor of being the first military company to receive and escort tlie general in Illinois after his tour around the world. On July 4, 1880, at a celebration in Amboy, they escorted the procession and were guests of the city. Having accepted an invitation to attend the twenty-fifth annual fair of tlie northwest, held at Sterling, September 14, 15, 16, and 17, the company was entertained with princely hospitality b}' the management of the association. At this time it escorted Gen. Grant and other gentlemen of national reputation, among whom were Gov. Cullom and Gen. Logan. On account of their discipline and military precision strangers mistook the Guards for soldiers from the regular army. The commissioned officers are Chas. H. Ingals, captain; William Deter, first lieutenant; Phillip H. Schwab, second lieutenant. A large proportion of non-commissioned officers and a number of privates were soldiers in the late war. The rank and file, by their persistent and determined effort to excel, have succeeded in attaining proficiency and excellence in military discipline and tactics for which they have, without an exception, received commendation and profuse compliments from the assistant superintendent general whenever paraded for inspection, and are now rated as one of the best companies of the Illinois National Guard.

Its property- is valued at s4r,000, secured without outside assistance (except about SlOO). It consists of an iron-roofed armory, which contains drill-room, gun-room, officers' quarters, dining-room and kitchen, and is one of the best in Illinois.

Jonathan Pktkrson, farmer, Sublette, is one of a family of three boys and eight girls. He was born in Truxton, Courtland county. New York, in 1812. His parents, Jonathan and Doretha (Smith) Peterson, were born in Franklin county, Massachusetts. His mother was of Irish descent. He was reared a farmer, and enjoyed the benefits of a common school education. He came west in 1836 via the Erie canal, Lake Erie, and across Michigan afoot to Chicago, where he stopped one week; thence to Ottawa, La Salle county. Here he spent the winter of 1836-7, whence he come directly to Lee county in the following spring, and settled in Lee Center township, near its southern boundary, nearly opposite his present home in Sec. 4, Suhlette,having moved across the line about twenty-five years ago. In the fall of 1837 Mr. Peterson went back east and was married to Percis Avery, of Connecticut. With his bride our subject came to his western home in the spring of 1838. In these early days Mr. Peterson hauled much produce to Chicago ; in 1840 he took up a load of wheat, and brought back his parents and their family (except one sister), who had come on from the east. He has had five children : Francis Augusta, born April 1S3!>, was a graduate of the first class of the state normal school, Normal, Illinois; was married July 1862 to E. A. Gastman, her classmate, and now a prominent educator and principal of schools, Decatur, Illinois. She died in the winter of 1863. Before her marriage she taught in Normal and

Decatur. Alice M., born in the fall of 1840; in March, 1863, married to W. F. Hoyt ; died of consumption in the latter part of 1863. Mr. Hoy t is now residing in Clinton, Iowa. Emeline W. was born in May 1842, second wife of A. J. Biddle, her second husband, a native of Indiana, and a veteran of the Union arm}' in the late rebellion. Myron J. was born in April 1844. In September, 1862, he enlisted at Dixon in the 75th Hi. Vols.; was wounded at Perryville, and was sent back to the hospital at New Albany, Indiana, reentered his regiment June 1863; was in the T5th 111. Vols, until the close of the war. Myron was in the following engagements: Chickamauga, Chattanooga, with Sherman to Atlanta, and back with Thomas to Tennessee. In 1873 he took up a soldier's claim in Nebraska, where with his wife he is now living. Walter A. was born in April 1852, is married and living in Wisconsin, having gone to that state in March 1881. The subject of this sketch has twice been supervisor of Sublette,having held that office three years. In an early day he was elected justice of the peace for Lee Center township, but did not qualify for the office. He is a republican and a deacon of the Baptist church, of which he and his wife are prominent members. Mrs. Peterson, daughter of Elisha and Percis (Pease) Avery, was born 1811. Her father was born in Massachusetts, her mother in Connecticut. Her ancestors on both sides are a long-lived race. Her mother's grandfather was born in Ireland, her father's people were from England. Her uncle, Walter Pease, aged ninety-eight, is living on the Connecticut river, near Hartford, where seven generations of the Pease family have lived. He is active yet and walks all over his farm. Her grandfather and grandmother on both sides lived to be over eighty years old. At ouq time her father had four widowed sisters, all more than eighty years old, living in Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Biddle, the son-in-law of Mr. Peterson, is an industrious, self-made man. He left his home when he was eleven years old, and began for himself He was a lumberman twelve years in Indiana. He has farmed in Lee Center township ; is a republican and a member of the Baptist chnreh. He was born in 1835.

Charlotte (Field) Baied was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, in 1811. Her mother, Martha Hitchcock, was born in 1868, and her mother's mother and father were born in 1742 and 1740 respectively. The name of the latter was David. Mrs. Baird has a brother and a sister: Setii, born in 1802, living in Massachusetts, and Adeline O. (Mrs. Baldwin), born in 1807, is living in La Salle county, Illinois, with Elmer Baldwin, her husband, and author of a history of La Salle county. Charlotte Field was married in December 1832, to Daniel Baird, born in Tioga county, New York, in 1806. Mr. Baird was reared a merchant and had a common school education. He came to La-

Salle county in 1836, via Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago. Mrs. Baird and her sister came in the fall of the same vear, via the Ohio and St. Louis. In 18311 Daniel Baird and his family came to Lee county, Sublette, and settled within a few rods of where Elijah Austin now lives, on the old mail route from Peru to Grand Detour; he took up a claim for a large tract of land. Then there was no house between his place and Troy Grove, thirteen miles southeast, in La Salle, and only one between there and La Moille. Here was the tirst post-office in Sublette, called Brookfield, and afterward Hanno. Mr. Baird was widely and favorably known ; he was the tirst supervisor of Sublette, and held the same office in 1858 ; he was county commissioner from 1844 to 1846 inclusive. In his house the first town meeting for Sublette was held. Baird's first house contained two twelve-pane windows and a stairway to the second floor, and compared with the greased-paper-window and peg-ladder-log-house, was considered by some rather stylish. He died in March 1866, and was buried in the family burial-ground. His family are: Marianne, born in 1838 (Mrs. Henry Chapman), living in Sublette township; Caroline (Mrs. Newton Puinphrey), 1843; Seth F., 1846. The latter is married and living on the homestead in Sec. 19, and with him Mrs. Baird is living. Newton Pumphrey is a tinsmith in the village of Sublette.

William Dextek, farmer, Sublette, was born in Canada, December 1831 ; he is the son of Elisha and Mary (Kane) Dexter, and tiie second in a family of eight. His mother, born in Ireland, came to Canada when she was about three 3'ears old. His father was born in New York state, aind several of his people were in the revolution. Elisha Dexter was a radical in McKiuzie's rebellion in Canada in 1837, and was in Michigan during the latter part of 1837. In 1838 he left Canada, after selling his farm near Toronto at a great sacrifice, and came to Illinois with his family. On their way tliey were all sick in Michigan, where his wife died. They arrived in Lee county in November 1839, and settled about a mile east of Binghamton, where they staid a short time; from here they moved to May township, where, after a little, Mr. Dexter bought a claim from John Dexter, his uncle, who came to Lee county in 1835. In 1846 he left this place, moved to the central part of the township, and bought a claim of 200 acres now owned by Jake Baker. Mr. Dexter, sr., died about 1858. In 1852 William Dexter married Martha Coleman, of Pennsylvania, whose people had come to Lee county about 1848. William had obtained a common school training, often going several miles to school. In 1858 he bought the W. ^ of S.W. ^ Sec. 4, Sublette, from Lewis Clapp for $2,400, having previously owned land and farmed in May and Lee Center townships. He has since bonght land in Sees. 8 and 9, and now owns over 200 acres. In August 1862 Mr. Dexter enlisted in tfie 75th 111. Vols., Co. E, Captain Frost, of Lee Center. During his entire service of nearl}^ three years he was off duty only five days (in regimental hospital). Mr. Dexter drove a team about three months ; drove an ambulance at Stone River, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Dalton, Resaca and Rome; here he was commissioned commissary sergeant of an army train, of which he had entire charge at Atlanta, and back with Thomas to Tennessee. He was discharged June 29, 1865. Mr. Dexter has nine children: Eliza, born 1853; Etta M., 1855; Emma, 1857; Otta, 1861; William, 1866; Ira, 1868; John, 1870; Margaret, 1872; Fred, 1874 (Martha, born 1S59, died 186i). Etta is a graduate of the Northwest College, at Naperville ; here Olta attended two years. Mr. Dexter has been nine years road commissioner, was chairman of the Garfield club of Sublette, is first lieutenant of the Lee county guards, and with his wife and four eldest daughters is a member of the Baptist church.

Alpheus H. Cldsk, farmer, Sublette, was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, in 1829, and was brought up to farming. His parents were William and Rebecca (Hulburt) Clink. His father was born in New York, and was descended from German ancestors. His mother was born in Pennsylvania, and her grandfather was German, while her grandmother was Scotch. Of a family of six Alpheus was the third. He was educated at the common schools, and with the whole family came to Lee county in August 1843. His father bought a claim in Lee Center township from William Church ; lived here a few years, and was engaged much of the time in teaming to Chicago, chiefly for Geo. E. Haskell, store-keeper at Inlet. In 1848 the family came to the N.W. i Sec. 12, Sublette, and entered the same. About this time the eldest daughter, Mrs. Lucretia Sawyer, died. The yotmgest boy died in 1854 of typhoid fever. In 1856 William Clink, the father, died of consumption, and was buried in Bradford cemetery, where the son and daughter had been laid. Margaret (Mrs. Canfield) died in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1857. Isaac M. Clink is farming in Iowa. He is well known in this and Bureau county, having been a justice of the peace in both. In 1852 Alpheus Clink built an 18x20 frame honse on the sonth " eighty " of the homestead. He has since bought sixty acres south of that. In 1879 he erected a line dwelling, cost about $1,800. He was first married in 1850, to Julia A. Caniield, by whom he had one son, now living in Greene county, Iowa. His wife died in December 1854. His second wife, Melissa M. Robinson, born in Ohio in 1837, has given birth to five ciiildren : Nina (Mrs. John Ellsworth), born September 1856, William H., 1857, Frank E., 1859, Harry, January 1869, and Sarah, December 1870. Mr. Clink is a republican.

Alpheus Crawford, tlic fatlier of Geo. M. Crawford, the subject of tliis sketcli, was born December 28, 1798, in Lucerne (now Bradford) county, Pennsylvania. His grandparents on iiis fatlicr's side were born and married in Scotland. His father and mother were born in Connecticut, and the parents of the latter were English. During the revolution his father belonged to a guard of minute men at New Haven, Connecticut, and he witnessed Bnrgoyne's surrender. In 1844 Alpheus Crawford with a family of six children came west with a team and wagon via Buffalo, Lake Erie by boat, and across Michigan directly to Knox Grove, where seven or eight families were then living. He bought of widow Pratt, for §75, a claim of theN.E. ^ ofS.W.^Sec. 13, and a " forty " just east of the same. There was a log house on the place, and about seven acres were broken. He is still living here. Geo. M. Crawford, born December 19, 1S25, was the second in a family of seven. His mother was Marsha Skinner, born June 1S03. George received a common school education and in the spring of 1845 took a claim of the E. i of N. W. J Sec. 13, and an " eighty " east of the same. In the spring of 1849 he built a frame liouse, partly with lumber hauled from Chicago with a team. He was married the same year to Mrs. Lydia A. Dewey, daughter of Levi Camp, an old settler at Knox Grove. This lad}' died in 1852, and in December, 1859, Mr. Crawford married Maria J., daughter of Stephen Clink, an early settler in Bradford township. Three children are the oH'spring of this union : Milo H., born October, 1861 ; Nerval M., born October 1863, Clara M., May 1870. In 1862 Mr. Crawford bought of Daniel Pratt the N.W. J o'f S.W. ^ Sec. 13, at $30 per acre. He has also purchased the W. i of N.W. i Sec. 13, at $58 per acre. In 1868 he built a house at a cost of $2,000, and a barn in 1877 at a cost of $1,200. Mr. Crawford is a republican, and his wife is a member of the Congregational church.

Edw.vki) M. Lewis, wagon-maker and blacksmith, Sublette, was born in Broom county, Massachusetts, December 1844. He is the son of Joseph W. and Elsie (Shutts) Lewis, the latter of German descent. His father was from Vermont, and was a carpenter by trade. Edward was the eldest of four children, of whom two are now living. He worked on a farm until he was nineteen years old. In the meantime he obtained a common school education. He came with his j»arentsto Lee county in 1845, first to Nachusa, thence in 1853 to Amboy, where they have since had a residence. He learned carriage wood-work of H. Sweet, of Amboy. Was married in 1S6S to Sarah Tate, born of English parentage in 1851. Two bo^'shave been born to them: Howard, in 1871, and Henry, 1876. Mr. Lewis began in Sublette in 1869. He owns property to the value of about $1,000 and is doing a good business, chiefly wagon and carriage repairing. He is a republican, a

Nelson F. Swaetwodt, farmer, Sublette, brotlier of Abram Swartwout, was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, in 18-i4. He attended the Lee Center Academy as well as a commercial school ; enlisted at Dixon, October 1864, in the 34th 111. Inf.; went into Tennessee, was first engaged at Nashville, and was there wounded. After being in the hospital a month and spending another at home on furlough, he was sent via New York to his regiment at Goldsboro, North Carolina, skirmished a little in this vicinity, and was mustered out July 12, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky, having previously witnessed the grand review of Grant's and Sherman's armies at Washington. Mr. Swartwout has, at different times, been engaged in teaching school. He was married, October, 1869, to Amelia Nettleton, of Massachusetts. They have three children : Walter E.., Mina L. and Nellie A. His farm of 170 acres in S.W. J of Sec. 3 is well tilled and valuable. Mr. Swartwout votes the republican ticket, belongs to the Sublette Baptist church, and is a frank, outspoken man.

Abram L. Swartwout, farmer, Sublette, was born October 20, 1841, in Rock Island county, Illinois. He is one of four children of Nelson J. and Abagail Ricker Swartwout: Abram L., Nelson F., Frank E. (deceased), and Hattie (Mrs. Wright). His father came to Illinois from Otsego county. New York, about 1836. His mother was born in Sangamon county, Illinois. After living in Lee Center township about ten years the family moved to Sublette in 1855. The senior Swartwout built here, and was the first lumber dealer and grain buyer in Sublette. He had built the first blacksmith shop in Lee Center township. This was on the old Chicago road from Dixon. Mr. Swartwout hauled lumber from Chicago to build his house in Lee Center. Frank, nine years old at his death, was killed by a horse in Sublette in 1856. Abram L. Swartwout received an academic education. He enlisted September 21, 1861, in Co. D, 34th 111. Inf., at Springfield, Illinois. He went into Kentucky, came up with Buell's command at Shiloh the second day of the fight, afterward went to near Chattanooga, then fell back to Louisville when Bragg threatened Cincinnati. He was captured about the time of the engagement at Perr^'ville, but was soon paroled. Early in 1863 was again in service. At Liberty Gap, June 1863, he was brigade inspector's clerk ; was captured at Chikamauga, and was a prisoner seven months in Richmond and Danville, Virginia. June 10, 1864, Mr. Swartwout joined his regiment on the Atlanta campaign. He was mustered out Se])tember 1864, reenlisted March 1865, in the4th U. S. Veterans, Hancock's corps. During most of his latter service he was a detailed clerk in the war department. Finally mustered out April 1866. Mr. Swartwoiit was married to Carrie E. Thayer, of Massachusetts, September 1866. He settled on the homestead, where he now resides, has-ing previous!}' been one year in business witli A. L. Wilder, in Sublette, and two years in the grocery business in Mendota, Illinois. He now has a farm of 240 acres. Sec. 4, S.E. J and S. ^ of N.E. ^. His family are Frank A., Editli L. and Hattie May. He is a prominent republican, a deacon of the Sublette Baptist church, quartermaster sergeant of the 12th I.IST.G.and withal an intelligent, un assuming gentleman.

Chas. H. Ingals, farmer, Sublette, son of Charles F. and Sarah (Hawkins) Ingals, was born March 11, 1846, in Lee county, Illinois, and was brought up to farming. Besides going to the common schools he took a partial course in the normal sciiool at Normal, Illinois. He enlisted at Dixon in 1862, but was rejected because he was too young and too small. In the fall of 1863 he entered Co. A., 75th 111. Inf., went with his regiment to Tennessee, from Chattanooga to Atlanta, was with Sherman at the capture of Atlanta, came back with Thomas to Tennessee, was in the engagements at Franklin and Spring Hill, November 30, and at Nashville in December 1864. Mr. Ingals was then detailed by the medical directory to the 1st division of the 4th Army Corps, was transferred to the 21st 111. reg. in June 1865; went to New Orleans the next month, and thence, in August 1865, to San Antonio, Texas, where he remained until he received orders to be mustered out. From January till June 10, 1865 he was in the ofBce of the medical director}'. He was afterward in the provost guards, 4th corps army headquarters, and the provost marshal general's office at St. Antonio, which position he held until the expiration of his service, December 25, 1865. In May, 1865, Mr. Ingals received a sergeant's commission. He was in the engagements atlvenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Nashville, Franklin, and others. He is now captain of Co. F., 12th Inf. Illinois national guards (see Lee county guards), also commander of Lee county post No. 65 of G.A.R., headquarters at Amboy. Mr. Ingals is a republican, and belongs to the order of Masons. His farm of 200 acres is in Sec. 10. His residence is about half a mile from the village of Sublette, and was built in 1870 at a cost of $3,400. Previous to his settlement here he was engaged in mercantile business at Rocky Falls, Whitesides county. Was married in March 1871, to Mary I. Morse, who came with her parents from Massachusetts to Illinois in 1869. She was born in Natick, Massachusetts, December 10, 1854. The offspring of this marriage are five children : Herbert F., Grace M., Neva May., Walter F. and Fred. M. Mr. Ingals is a tiirifty farmer and an enteqirisiiig citizen. He has an attractive home with beautiful environments, and seems to enjoy life.

Sherman L. Hatch, father of Charles L. Hatch, the subject of this sketch, was born in Cavendish, Windsor county, Vermont, in 1807. He was the son of Sherman and Caroline (Lovell) Hatch, of the same place. His grandfather on the father's side lived in Hartford, Connecticut, and his mother's father was one of the earliest settlers in Cavendish, Vermont. His father owned a small farm and was a hatter. Sherman was the oldest of twelve children, of which only he and four sisters are living. He received what was then called a common school education, and in the spring of 18.37 came west to Chicago, thence to Milwaukee, and from there to Jaiiesville, Wisconsin. From there, with seven others, he went down the Rock river in a boat, stopping at Rockford, Dixon and Prophetstown. Mr. Hatch remained over night in Iowa, opposite the mouth of the Rock, and then next day started up the river to Dixon, and arrived there in June. From there he went to Charles F. Ingals', who had settled in Lee Center in 1836. On his way he stopped at the house of Mr. Wliittaker, Lee Center, the only home seen since he left Dixon. Mr. Hatch came to Sublette, Sec. 7, in the southwest part of which was an abandoned claim and an unfinished log house, which he occupied and completed. He returned in the fiill of 1837 to Vermont, and married Lucy Brown in the spring of 1838. Returning to his claim he found it occupied. He appealed to the squatter tribunal ; the decision was that he (Hatch) should paj' $150 to the occupant in consideration of tillage and other improvements made during his absence; or if Hatch chose, the occupant might pay him $125 and retain possession. Our subject paid the $150, and reentered his humble dwelling. During the summer of 1838 mother earth was the first floor of his cabin ; the second, consisting of split rails covered with corn stalks, was for company. Mr. Hatch claimed a halfsection of praiuie and 240 acres of timber in May and Sublette townships; but when the land was sold he bought only an eighty (in May town), having loaned considerable sums of money which he could not collect. He has since bought the W. ^ of N.W. J Sec. 18, Sublette, and soon after the E. ^ of the same, where, in 1846, he built a 16x20 frame house, and in 1852 he built a brick house and a large barn; the lumber for the latter was all hauled from Chicago. Mr. Hatch lost his wife in November 1876; all of their four children are married : Harriet L. (Mrs. Gardner) was born December 1839 ; Caroline L. (Mrs. James Garrett), December 1840; Julia A. (Mrs. J. W. Latta, Dixon), December 1845; Charles L., 1848. The latter was married in 1874, to Catharine Barse, of Detroit, Michigan. Their family are Lucy M., born April 1875, and Harry L., May 1877. Mr. C. L. Hatch has recently bought land in Sees. 17 and 18, adding to the large tract only partially described in this sketch. He taught scliool two winters; he is now living on the homestead. He is a deacon of the Sublette Congregational church; his wife is a Unitarian. His father is a republican, and in an early day was a captain in the Vermont militia.

Joel Cook, farmer, Sublette, was born in Otsego county, New York, in 1828, and was raised a farmer. He came west with his peoin 1845, learned the carpenter and shoemaker trades in Lee county, though he had worked at the latter a little in the east. He went overland to the Far West in 1850, was in California and Oregon nearly four years, came back, and married Emily Strickland, of Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1855, her parents having come to Lee county in 1849. Mr. Cook bought eighty acres of land from his brother John for $1,700, and went to farming, the next spring, in the S.E. ^ Sec. 8. He built a 16x24 house. He has since purchased 110 acres in Sees. 5 and 9, at a cost of $4,000. In 1875 Mr. Cook put up a liouse at a cost of $1,800. His family are Lacon, born in 1863, and Katie, born 1871. His wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a republican and a Mason, but was formerly an Odd-Fellow. In an early day he used to go to Chicago much with an ox team ; once he was gone forty days. In the meantime, however, he took some emigrants out to Iowa. Daniel Cook, father of the above, was born in New York, on Van Rensselaer's grant, in 1802. He was the second in a family of seven. He had five uncles killed in the revolution. His parents, Simeon and Polly (Baldwin) Cook, moved to Pennsylvania when he was three years old. He went to school only about two weeks, but w-as taught at home. He married, in 1823, Phojbe Rouse, and lived in Pennsylvania until he came west. Their family consists of four children living : Samuel, born 1824 ; Joel, born 1826 ; John J., born 1830 ; Lydia, born 1836. On his arrival ip Lee county with his family in 1845, Mr. Cook, during the first winter, lived with Daniel Trip at Inlet creek ; the next year on Thomas Fessenden's farm, after which he settled on the S.E. ^ Sec. 8. For this John J. Cook had a warrant, having been a soldier in the Mexican war. John is now living in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Samuel was in the late rebellion, and received injuries at Perryville, from which he has never recovered, though he was not in the engagement. He is now living with his family in Cherokee county, Kansas, and is engaged in farming. Mr. Cook and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The former is an Odd- Fellow, and the latter belongs to the Rebeccas. Mr. Cook was an oldtime democrat, but voted for Abe Lincoln, and has since voted the rejniblican ticket. He can remember seeing the soldiers of the war of 1812, in which was one of his cousins. He and his wife are now living with their daughter, Mrs. Scorteld, in Sublette.

Wm. W. Ireland, farmer, Sublette, was born in Harrison county, western Virginia, in 1826. He is the son of Jonathan and Eliza (Boring) Ireland, both of Marj'land. He was brought up to farming, his father's occupation, and received a common-school ediication. His people moved to Clinton county, Ohio, when he was a year old ; here they lived a few years ; thence to Bureau county, Illinois, where his father bought a claiui. William Ireland came to Sublette in 1850, and bought of Stiles and Eustace for $130, a warrant for the S.W. ^ Sec. 23. The same year he bought twenty acres of timber. He now owns 215 acres of land, having bought the last in 1876. For several years Mr. Ireland lived with his brother on the N.W. J Sec. 23. He built on his own land in 1857, was married in the fall of 1856 to Sarah Vertrees, who was born in Indiana in 1833. They have had seven children, live of whom are living: Theodore F., born September 1857; Ida E., born December 1858 ; Delia J., born August 1860 ; Miriam A., born March 1862 ; Fay, born September 1865 (died April 1880) ; Willie, born March 1864 (deceased) ; Chas. A., born 1868. In politics Mr. Ireland is a liberal republican. Mrs. Ireland is a member and officer of the Sublette Methodist Episcopal church. She taught school in an early day in the vicinity of Knox Grove, named after her mother's people, who were early settlers there. Her great-grandfather Knox came from Scotland, and settled in North Carolina. Her father's father was in the war of 1812. Her mother's grandfather (Brooks) was all through the revolution. John Knox, her uncle, when above fifty years old went with three sons and a son-in-law from Lee county, Missouri, into the federal army of the rebellion. He died in the hospital at Nashville. One of the boys, wounded at Allatoona. Georgia, went home, and was replaced by his youngest brother. None of the other four ever returned from the battle-fields.

Emekson W. Patten, railroad agent, Snblette, was born September 25, 1826, in Greenwich, Hampshire county, Massachusetts. He is the youngest of four children of Calvin and Laura (Warrener) Patten, Mrs. R. H. Millen, of Amboy, being the eldest. His father was from Connecticut; his mother was born in Massachusetts. There is a tradition that three Patten brothers came from Scotland very early in the history of our country, one landing near Boston, one near New York, and the other in Rhode Island. " Great Uncle Billy " Patten was a revolutionary hero, and until he was almost a hundred walked annually to Taunton, Massachusetts, a distance of eight miles, to draw his pension. Emerson Patten was raised a farmer, and lived in his native town till 1853 when he came west to Amboy. Here he dealt in books and jewelry, but chiefly in real estate, losing heavily in the latter business in 1858. He lived in Amboy till 1873 ; was one year in Freeport, Illinois, and in 1874 came to Sublette, where he has since been emploj'od by the Illinois Central Railroad Co^lpan3^ He was married in the tall of 1859 to Lucy E. Morse, born in New York. Three children are the fruit of their marriage: Alfred E., born December 186-i; Calvin E., November 1866; Lena, September 1860. Mr. Patten is a Mason and a republican, and since he was nineteen years old he has belonjjed to the Congregational church.

Alfred L. Wilder, merchant, Sublette,was born in Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts, in 1825. He is the son of Joshua and Lavina (Long) Wilder, of the same county, and his mother's mother was a revolutionary pensioner. He was raised a farmer, staying with his father till he was twenty years old ; and was educated at the Shelburne Falls Academy, Shelburne, Franklin county, in which town both his parents were born, and he lived from his early 3'outh. In 1854 Mr. Wilder came to Chicago; he clerked one year in Putnam county, where he was married to Mrs Elvira Hewitt, of Franklin county, Massachusetts, born in 1826. In 1854 he bought land in Iowa. In 1855 he settled in Sublette, and built a store. Mr. Wilder is now doing a large business, carrying a stock of about $10,000. He occupies the store began in 1855, to which he has added from time to time, the last improvement in 1877, and which is now worth about $3,000. His house was built in 1865 or 1866 at a cost of S2,500. His children are: Wni. A., born 1856; Nellie M., 1858, married T. F. Ireland, son of W. W. Ireland, and is now living in Mills count}-, Iowa ; Raymond A., 1862. Both sons are working with their father in his business, a general dry-goods, grocery, boot and shoe trade. William is married. Mr. and Mrs. Wilder, the parents, are members of the Baptist church. Mrs. A. L. Wilder's father, Horace Benton, a native of Massachusetts, who has lived in Sublette since 1855, is in his eighty-sixth year, and possesses remarkable mental and physical vigor for one so old.

Mrs. Harriet L. Gardner, daughter of Sherman L. Hatch, and widow of Dr. Francis B. Gardner, was born .i the homestead in December 1839. She went to the common school biit three months ; was sent to Lee Center and Janesville, Wisconsin, to school, and completed her education at a private school in West Chester county, New York. She taught school a few terms, and was married to Mr. Gardner in 1861. He had received his education at the Bridgewater, Massachusetts Normal school, and was a graduate from the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical School. He afterward graduated from a homoeopathic school in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Gardner was born in February 1822, in Swansea, Massachusetts. His father was a sea-captain, and Francis was the youngest but one in a family of ten. lie settled in Sublette in 1861. He had been in California most of the time since 1849, working mines or practicinir medicine, liaviniy returned three times from that country. In 1863 he bought from Elder Morrison the house where his family are living in the village of Sublette, a little west of the Baptist chui'ch. At that time he purchased two lots, since increased to five acres of farm land. His heirs now own in May and Sublette townships to the amount of 160 acres. Two boys and a girl are the fruit of his marriage : Seraphine, born July 1862 ; Frank, March 1864; Charles, November 1865. In November, 1880, the doctor met a cruel and unexpected death ; he was tossed by a bull and fell on tiie back of his head, from the eifect of which he died the third day after the accident. He was a hearty, rather stout man, and had never experienced any sickness worth mention. He and his wife were Episcopalians, though the latter recently united with the Congregational church, there being no Episcopal church in Sublette. He joined the Masons about a year before he died ; he was a brother of Dr. Charles Gardner, an early settler in Nachusa township.

Frank Thompson, hardware merchant, Sublette, was born in La Salle county, Illinois, in 1853. His father, John B., was born in Ohio in 1825 ; his mother, Clementine Eastman, in Maine in 1822. Tiiey came west in 1844:, lived about a year in Bureau county, then settled in La Salle county, Ophir township, where Mr. Thompson took up a claim. In 1853 he took a contract to grade a part of the Illinois Central railroad between Amboy and Sublette; he came to Sublette in 1867. Frank Thompson is one of a family of three boys and two girls. He was raised a farmer, and was graduated from the Valparaiso (Indiana) Commercial School. For a time he was a clerk in Amboy; went with his eldest brother, in the si)ring of 1875, to California, where they worked a mine. Frank came back in the winter of 1876-7, and began in the hardware business in Sublette in 1878, under the firm name of F. A. Thompson & Co. He now has a stock of $2,500. Mr. Thompson was made postmaster at Sublette, February 1881. He is a Baptist, and a metn^.'er of the Lee county guards. He was married October 28, 1880, to Stella S., daughter of James Dexter, and sister of Mrs. William Wilder.

Peescott Baetlett, farmer, Sublette, was born in Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts, August 19, 1821. His father, born in 1789, was a tanner by trade, and raised a company during the war of 1812. His mother, Xarcissa Robinson, was born 1787. Mr. Bartlett came west in 1844, to Du Page county, Illinois, and soon after to Sublette, taking a claim of a quarter-section on Sec. 20, a part of which is now owned by H. C. Chapman. After living here about five years he went to Bureau county and bought a farm. He now owns and lives upon the E.^ Sec. 17, Sublette, having bought it in 1850 from

William Erskine for $500. In 1868 he built a fine residence of Batavia stone at a cost of $12,000. Having passed through Texas and Arkansas in 1855, he became convinced that war was imminent; he studied cavalry tactics in the winter of ISOO, and in the following spring began to raise a cavalr}' company. He took several horses from his own farm, giving one to a hired man as an inducement for him to enlist. Mr. Bartlett enlisted in June 1861 ; was sworn into service August 7, and received a ca])tain's commission in Co. C, 7th 111. Cav. The company, when mustered, numbered about ninety-eight, about twenty-five or thirty of whom were from Sublette; the rest chiefly from Mendota, Amboy, and Lee Center. They went first into Missouri, thence through Kentucky and Tennessee, early in 1862. In September 1862 the 7th cavalry was encamped at Tuscumbia, Alabama, at which time Co. C was detached as special escort to Gen. John M. Palmer, in .which service they continued until January 1864. They were in all the hard fighting of the Rosecrans' campaign, the battle of Stone River being their first general engagement. They did gallant service at Missionary Ridge, and were in much skirmishing, especially at and near Nashville. Capt. Bartlett was six weeks president of a military commission at Memphis. That he was not promoted during his service was from no lack of merit. He escaped promotion more than once through accidental circumstances, over which he had no control. To his worth as a true soldier many freely testify. He was married January 4, 1849, to Caroline Whitney, born in Warren county, Ohio (her father was from Maine, her mother, Ohio). Of their eight children four are living, the others having died young: Silas Wilton, born March 1853; Eugene P., born March 1858; Howard, born November 1865 ; Cora May, born March 1869. Wilton, was admitted to the bar in May 1881. Eugene is a master penman. Both have attended school at Normal, Illinois, a considerable time. Mr. Bartlett has been a stirring, industrious man and has seen mnch of the world. He has traveled widely in the purchase and sale of horses, having gone to Boston and Providence several times, for the latter purpose. In an early day he was elected constable, and was a deputy under sheriff Campbell at the time of the famous "banditti" prosecutions. He is a Mason and a staunch republican. Mr. Bartlett has always been a generous, public spirited man, identifying himself with every progressive movement. But for lack of space many an interesting anecdote might be related illustrative of his enterprise in civil life and his willingness to assume responsibility during his military careei-.

the Massachusetts colony. His father, Thomas Fessenden, was born in Fitzburg, Jfew Hampsliire, February 1, 1805, and was raised a farmer, being the son of William and Rebecca Fessenden, whose family consisted of three sons and four daughters. One of the latter, Mrs. Joel Jewett, settled with her husband on Sec. 18, a few years after Thomas and his family settled in Sublette. Mr. and Mrs. Jewett are both dead. In 1830 or 1831 Thomas Fessenden married Sarah Pearsons,born June 13, 1804. With his brother-in-law, Addison G. Bragg, he came west in 1834, passing through Chicago, Peru, Illinois, and down the Illinois river to St. Louis, returning in the fall of the same year. In 1837 with his wife, three children, and his brotiier William, he came west again, directly to Lee county. They lived three months on the Blunt place, in Amboy township; thence to Sublette, where they settled, William on Sec. 7, where John H. Long lives, and lived there till about 1852, when he sold to J. B. Wyinan. Thomas settled on Sec. 8, and lived there till 1869. Selling out to his sons, he went to Missouri for his health, and thence after three years to Santa Barbara, California, where he now resides. Of the family of Thomas Fessenden but four of eleven are now livinsr. Three died in infancv. The names of the others are Frederick A., born December 2<J, 1830 (died at the homestead December 7, 1862); George F., January 24, 1833; Frances J., December 1, 1835 (deceased November 16, 1867); Edward, April 4, 1839; Austin, October 7, 1842 (died June 22, 1862); Emeline and Caroline,twin sisters, May 24, 1844 (Emeline died February 5, 1866) ; Warren G., December 14, 1846. George is living witli his wife and two daughters in Kansas, whence he went from Lee county in 1878. Caroline (Mrs. Benj. Dexter) is living in Santa Barbara, California. All of the boys, except the youngest, served tiieir country in the late rebellion. Warren entered the 104th 111. Vols., in tiie one-hundred-days service. Edward and George enlisted in Co. E,75th 111., September 1862. George was with this company until he was mustered out, June 12, 1865. He was in the fighting at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, with Sherman through Georgia to the sea, and around to Richmond. Edward was transfered to the Veteran Reserve Corps, July 1863. Was at Elmira and Buffalo, New York, and afterward, except two months, was at Camp Douglas, Chicago, until he was mustered out, July 1865. Tlie subject of this article was married February, 1862, to Harriet E. Dexter, youngest daughter of John Dexter, the first settler in Amboy township. Their family consists of three ciiildren living : Thomas E., born September 1862 (deceased January 1863); Francis D., born August 1867; James H., born January 1871; Stella, born July 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Fessenden are members of the Congregational cliurch. Mr. Fessenden sold iiis farm, the old homestead, in the spring of 1881, and is going to California to reside. He is the last of the famih' in Sublette, and like all the rest is a republican. He will be greatly missed by his nei<ihbors and friends, who have long known him as an upright and conscientious man.

Waeeen Clarke, carpenter, Sublette, was born in Medfield, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, February 22, 182.5. His lather, Jacob Clarke, was born in 17t'2 and died in 1865; he was of Scotch ancestry. His mother, Cyntha Ann Morse, born in 1795, is still living. His father was a fifcr in the war of 1812 ; he was a first cousin of the celebrated Lowell Mason, of Boston, to whose singing-school Warren went when a j'outh. Warren Clarke learned the carf/cnter's trade when eighteen years of age, having previously worked at shoemaking, his father's trade. He came west in 185i to Mendota, Illinois; worked live years in a foundry there, and, except two years in the insurance business, he has since followed carpentering in Mendota and Sublette, having moved to the village of Sublette in 1877. While in Mendota he did many firstclass jobs, building the west side school-house, besides many of the finest stores and dwellings. He has been a Mason since 1862, and belongs to the oi'der of I.O.O.F. He has always been a republican. Mr. Clarke has been twice mari'ied : first, 18-11>, in Vermont, to Juliaetta L. Aldrich, by whom he had two children : a son, born February 1852 (deceased 1854), and a daughter, January 1857 (now Mrs. Allen, Mendota, Illinois). In 1876 he married his second wife, Melphia Stearns, of Sublette, his first having died in 1873. The fruits of this second marriage arc two daughters: Mary, born June 15, 1877, and Lina Stearns, December 1878.

John D. Touutillott, farmer, Sublette, was born June 26, 1827, in the town of Howland, Penobscot county, Maine. His father, Thomas Tourtillott, born in Orino, Maine, April 1786, was of French descent. His mother, Hannah Douglass, was born in Hancock county, Maine, April 1797, and was of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather was a " Ilevolutioner." His parents were married in Howland, Maine, September 20, 1826. This was the second marriage of Thomas Tourtillott, Charlotte Inman, by whom he had eight children, being his first wife. By his second wife he had seven children, of whom John is the eldest. In 1839 the Tourtillotts came west in two wagons drawn by three liorses. There were fourteen in the company, and the journej' occupied seventy days. They stopped at La Moille, Bureau county, and in the following year, 18i0, came to Sublette and settled on Sec. 31. Here the senior Tourtillotts lived till 1808, when they ceased housekeeping and went to live among their children. Hannah Tourtillott died March 19, 1878, at the residence of her son-in-law, Joseph Hodges, two miles north of Sublette. She had reached the ripe age of nearly eiglitj-one years ; she had seen her family grow up and settle, some near her and others in Kansas, Iowa, California and elsewhere. She survived only one of her children, a son who died October, 1876. She was a devoted christian mother, having experienced religion at the age of seventeen. "She possessed an extraordinary self-sacrificing and sympathetic spirit for her family." In the following year, December 8, 1879, she was followed by her aged companion, who, in the ninety-fourth year of his life, went to meet her in the " better land." When twenty-three years of age he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and " lived for many years an active and zealous member, enforcing both by word and example the holy religion he professed." John Tourtillott, the only one of his family left in Lee county, received a common school education, and was married October 5, 1856, to Mary Jane Dexter (deceased October 1878). Four children are the fruits of their wedded life: John Fremont, born July 1857 (deceased October 1858) ; Thomas A., September 1858 ; Ella Mary, July 1862; and a deceased infant, born October 18G4. He went with his family to California in 1869, with some view of remaining there, but returned in 1871. He is now living on the homestead on Sec. 31. In politics he was an old-time whig, but he has been a republican since the organization of that party. He and his family are members of the Congregational church.

Newton Stanaed, farmer, Sublette, was born in Madison county, New York, November 1819. His father, Libeous Stanard, born in Vermont, was a fanner. His mother, Luceba Fay, was born in Connecticut. They had a family of twelve, ten of whom are living. The father was in the war of 1812, and was at Sacket's Harbor some time in the fall of 181:0. Libeous Stanard came west with his family in two covered wagons to Perkins' Grove, Bureau county, to which Newton and his brother had come the year before. The family were six weeks on their way. They bought 160 acres of land, timber and prairie, from the widow of J. Kendall, some of which they afterward entered. In 1842 the mother and one son died with typhoid fever. The father survived till October 1859. Newton Stanard was married in November 1844, to Emily Reniff, who was born in New York state in 1823. Her parents, when she was an infant, moved back to Massachusetts, whence they came west. In the spring of 1847 Mr. Stanard bought from John Dement the S.E. I of Sec. 19, Sublette, and settled there. He hauled lumber from Chicago and built a house 24x30, with an addition 16x16. This was then one of the best in that vicinity, and is still in good condition. His family are : Charles, born February 1846; Ora, December 1852; Irvin, February 1857; Laura E., September 1859 ; Adella, May 1861. They have all enjoyed good edu- cational advantages, Ora being a graduate from the college at Xaperville, Illinois. Charles enlisted, October 1864:, in the 75th 111., Co. E, and was mustered out October 1.5, 1865. He was in the Hood campaign in Tennessee, and saw his tirst fighting at Xashville. During the latter part of his service he was in Texas. He is married and living in Sublette; has two children. All but one of the family ot Newton Stanard belong to the Baptist church. Of the first family mentioned, three own property in Bureau county, two of whom are living there. The rest are widely scattered.

Seth F. Baied, farmer, Sublette, was born September 1846 ; son of Daniel and Charlotte (Field) Baird, early settlers in Sublette township. He received a common schooling and took a commercial course at Aurora, Illinois ; was married June 12, ISTO, to Amanda S. Thompson, of Lee county, who had come from West Virginia with iier people the previous year. She died July 27, 1873, leaving two children : Carrie A. and Robert Daniel (deceased infant). Mr. Baird was again married, February 4, 1875, to Martha A. Rees, of Indiana. She has given birth to one child : William M., born May 1876. The family are now living on the old liomestead on Sec. 19. They are Methodists.

Chas. D. Hubbard, painter, Sublette, was born in Lee county, May 4, 1846, and is the youngest son of Royal Prescott Hubbard, who was born in Sunderland, Mass., September 1805. The mother of the latter, Lavinia Prescott, was one of a family of Prescotts noted in American history, and who trace their lineage to a certain James Prescott, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of England. Moses Hubbard was the father of Royal P. Hubbard, who is the eldest of a family of thirteen, only four of whom are living. In 1827 he sailed from New York in company with forty-one young men from Connecticut and Massachu.setts, and settled in Macon, Georgia, where he engaged in mercantile business till 1835, wiien he had to tleefor his life, iiavingtoo freely expressed his sentiments in regard to the atrocities of slavery. This was the first abolition excitement tliere, and the mob surrounded the home of our subject a few minutes after he left it and fied to Charleston and out of the South, of course losing all his property there. In 1838 he came to Princeton, Illinois, and in 1844 to Sublette, settling on Sec. 17. In 1842 he married Mary (^Boring) Berkeley, a widow with four children, by whom he had four more, all of whom are living. Their mother died May 13, 1S81. When the rebellion broke out Mr. Hubbard, having seen all the horrors of slavery, told his sons to " pitch in and clean them out." All of them, four in number, went into the service, and the father also offered his life, but was rejected because of physical disability. Chas. Hubbard enlisted in the 75th 111., Co. E, Captain Frost; was in the battle of Perry ville. In this engagement Co. E lost eleven killed, twenty-six wounded and two prisoners. He was in the fighting at Stone river, and under Hooker at Lookout Mountain ; was at Crawfish Springs as a flank in the battle of Chiekamauga ; was at Missionary Ridge, and with Sherman to a little below Atlanta. Came back with Thomas to Tennessee, and was in the fighting at Nashville and Franklin. He was mustered out June 12, 1865, without a wound, and having won the reputation of being a splendid soldier, being especially noted for his intrepidity and love for foraging. He was married August 26, 1871, to Lida K. Anderson, of Dixon. Their issue are: Louis P., March 1873; Mary G., August 1875; John, June 1878. Mr. Hubbard is living near the village of Sublette.

James Black, farmer, Sublette, was born January 1823, in the province of Leinster, Ireland. His parents, John and Charlotte (Pilkington) Black, had a family of seven children, and James Black was educated for the ministry of the English Episcopal church at Trinity College, Dublin, leaving that institution when he was about to take the degree of A.B. About lSi3 his father sold his property in Ireland to go to Australia, but in consequence of a wreck off Cape Good Hope he returned to his native land with his family and three or four thousand pounds, the remnant of his property. Remaining a few years in Ireland, he came to America with all his family except the eldest son, and settled in New Jersey, where he and his wife both died, and where their youngest daughter is now living. James Black was married, 1850, in New Jersey, to Sarah Wynne, by whom he has had ten children, eight of whom are living : "William, born January 1853, Lottie (now Mrs. Levi Mead, Astoria county, Iowa), Susan, John, Jane (deceased, aged eleven years), Sarah, James, Hattie, George (deceased, infant), Edith. Mr. Black came to Lee Center township about 1853, and in 1860 to Sec. 1, Sublette, he and his brother buying 182 acres in the N.W. i of same. Here he has since lived. The family are members of the Congregational church.

C. M. MiLLEE, butter and cheese maker, Sublette, was born in the Rhine province, Prussia, November 28, 1854. He was the eldest child of K. and Anne (Michels) Miller, who with their family came to Winfield, Du Puge county, Illinois, in 1864. The subject of this notice received a common education in the English and German schools. Mr. Miller has been thoroughly schooled in the cheese and butter business, having been employed by several of the best manufacturers in the famous Fox river region. In 1873 he began in La Fox, Kane county, under Potter & Baker, and afterward in the same vicinity for H. L. Ford. He was subsequently employed by Martin Switzer at St. Charles, same county, making the first cheese in his factory there, and also in Batavia by H. A. Bogardns, wholesale dealer in butter and ciieese, Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Miller began to manufacture for himself in Cook county, Palatine Grove, thence to Sublette in the spring of of 1881, buying the factory built by George Pulling. This establishment when completed will have cost about SSi^OO. A boiler and engine have been put in and a milk pool is contemplated. Mr. Miller is making both butter and cheese, shipping chiefly to Chicago. He is governed in his sales by Elgin prices, and his business is steadily increasing and promises soon to be a leading industry.

OuvEE A. Wooi>, farmer, Sublette, was born in Bolton, Massachusetts, June 1833, son of Amariah and Rachel (Atherton) Wood, born May, 1S07, and February, 1811, respectively. Both of his parents are of English descent, his mother having descended from one of four brothers named Atherton who came to Massachusetts at an early period. Oliver "Wood is the oldest and the only snrvivoi; in a family of four sons and three daughters. The latter all died young in the east ; one son died an infant. The rest of the family, Oliver, George and Frank, received a good education lor the times. In 1851 the familv came to Sublette and settled on Sec. 30, where Oliver and his faniih* are living with his parents. George was killed at Chickasaw Bayou, near Vicksburg, December 18('i3. Frank died in the hospital at Nashville, January 1864. Oliver Wood enlisted in the 75th III., Co. E, in August 1862. He was seriously wounded in the battle of Perryville, and was mustered out January 8, 1863, having been confined in hospital from October, 1862, till January, 1863, at Perryville and Louisville, Kentucky, and New Albany', Indiana. His wound was a serious one, the ball passing entirely through his abdomen, and from its effects he has suffered more or less ever since. Mr. Wood married, August 18o3, Climena Hubbard, daughter of Royal Prescott Hubbard. Their sons, George Frank, born October 1865, and Leon A., October 1869, constitute their family, having lost their two daughters in infancy. Mr. Wood is a Mason aTrd"'aTi'"0dd-Fellow, and with his family belongs to the Congregational church. He owns the homestead of 120 acres.

John C. Spielmann, farmer, Mendota, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, March 9, 1830. His parents are John and Mary (Sinner) Spielmann, and he is the only survivor of their four children. In 1847 he came via New York directly to Lee county with his father and mother, who are now living with him. They settled on Sec. 34, buying a claim of 30 acres from a Mr. Kenney. They now own a valuable farm in Sees. 34 and 35, and in Bureau county opposite. In 1871 they built a fine residence on Sec. 35, on the Chicago road. In 1858 Mr. Spielmann married Julia Naumann ; they have no children, but they have reared two adopted ones: Julia Kinnenberger, who was married in 1879, to Julius Alber, now living in Iowa; and George Higgins, aged fifteen years. John Spielmann, jr., is a self-made man, having received the most of his education in the German tongue. From 1854 until 1869 he was a circuit preacher in the church of the E.A.U.A., but quit these duties on account of bodily iniirmities. He has preached in Cook, La Salle, Tazewell, Peoria, Kankakee and other counties in this vicinity. He is a man of unimpeachable character, and is better known in Bureau than in Lee county.

Jacob Richert, farmer, Mendota, was born in Alsace, Germany, November 1835 ; son of Jolm and Anna C. (Staub) Richert, and is the fifth in a family of four boys and three girls. In 1854 he came to New Orleans with Peter Richert, his eldest brother, thence to Lee count}- in the fall of 1854, stopping in Indiana during the summer. Jacob worked around for several years, and in the spring of 1861 bought 80 acres in Sec. 36 from John Fry, jr., at $21 per acre. In the same year he enlisted in Co. B, 62d III. Inf. This regiment was mustered at Geneva, Illinois, and departed late in the fall of 1861 for St. Louis, thence to St. Joseph, where they staid about two months. From here they were sent to Tennessee, by the way of Quincy and Cairo, Illinois, crossing the Mississippi at Quincy on the ice. The regiment came up at Fort Donelson just as the rebels surrendered, and were iinder Grant at Shiloh, losing there 260 of their number in killed and wounded. Previously Mr. Richert had been detailed as a guard with prisoners to Springfield, Illinois. He was in the battle of Corinth, where his regiment staid till they were sent to Pulaski, Tennessee, in the early winter of 1863. From here Mr. Richert was sent home to recruit, remaining home five months and returning with as many recruits. He reentered the 52d in the Atlanta campaign in June 1864, and was engaged in twenty days, hard fighting and skirmishing. He was mustered out at Rome, Georgia, October llB64, not having received a scratch during his faithful service. In December, 1864, he married Mary Butz, of May township, and seven children now gladden their home: Frederick, born December 1865; Mary, born February 1868 ; George B., born April 1870 ; Sarah, born August 1873 ; Clara, born September 1875 ; Emma, born January 1878 ; Simon, born September 1880. Mr. Richert now owns the S.E. J Sec. 36, having bought the west half of the same from Michael Bitner at $45 per acre. There are good buildings on the place, and its owner is now enabled to enjoy the fruit of his toil. He and his family are members of the Evangelical church. Mr. Richert is a republican. His father has been to Illinois three times,. once remaining four years, and returned to his native land for the last time in 1876, and died in

Christian Biestek, farmer, Sublette, was born in German}', Hanover county, December 1831. His parents, Fred and Caroline (Weber) Biester, had a family of three boys'Hiid one girl. His father was seven years in the German army. Our subject came to America in 1855, via Baltimore to Chicago, where he stopped two years ; tlience to Lee county, Illinois. Here he worked out for several years as a farmhand. In 1867 he bought eighty acres in Sec. 8. He has been industrious and careful, and now has the deeds for 236 acres of valuable land, upon which he erected a fine dwelling in 1873. He went back to Germany in the fall of 1861, and was there married, March 1862, to Dora Miller, whom he had known in childhood. They arrived in Chicago in March 1862. Their family are: Louis, born January 1863; Henry, November 1865; Ernest, ]Sovember 1867 ; Dora, December 1869; Mary, June 1871; Anna, May 1873; August, December 1874. The family belonged to the Lutheran church. Mr. Biester is the only one of his family that came to America. Mrs. Biester's mother came to America in 1868. The latter has a son in Dakota, a daughter in Minnesota, and three daughters, all married, living in Lee county.

John H. Schwoiib, fanner, Sublette, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, Maj' 1, 1813. He was six years in the German army. In 1847 he came to America with his family of a wife and five children. He settled on Sec. 34 in the town of Sublette, and now owns a farm of 170 acres there. He first bought thirty acres on which was a log house, on the north side of the " Chicago road," on land now owned by Conrad Speilman. When twenty-five years of age he married Margaret Kiilil. Their children are: George, Conrad (enlisted in Co. B, 52d 111. Yols., and was killed at Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia) ; Philip, Mary, Henry, Katherine, Eva and Margaret. George, Henry, Mary (^Mrs. Keichart) and Margaret (Mrs. Boeler) are living in Clay county, Kansas, and Katherine (Mrs. Thomas Boettcher) in Mendota. Eva (Mrs. Baoer) is now living with her husband on the homestead. Sehwoub belongs to the Evangelical church, and his life shows that he is a true disciple of Ciirist. In politics he was an old-time democrat; but voted for Fremont and Lincoln, and has since been a republican.

Fkkderick Oberheljian, grain-buyer, Sublette, was born in Warren county, Missouri, in 1844. His father, Frederick, and his mother, Christine (Knoepker), came to Missouri, the former in 1833, the latter in 1838. Frederick was the eldest in a family of eleven children. His father was a farmer and he was reared to the same business. His grandfather was a German soldier, and was in the battles of Leipsic, Waterloo, and others. Mr. Oberhelman was sent to school but little, in all not more than twelve months, and never to an English school. During the war of the rebellion he was five years in the Missouri State Militia and Home Guards. In 1866 he married Mary E. Betz, daughter of John Betz, an early settler in Sublette. None of their children have lived ; they have one adopted daughter. Mr. Oberhelman began farming in 1867 on Sec. 22, and continued in the same till 1871, when he went into the business of buying and shipping grain in the village of Sublette. In 1874 he built an elevator, which with his engine cost him $5,000. He also deals in coal and lumber, and till recently dealt in live-stock. His business is prosperous, he having paid out as much as $100,000 in one year. He and his wife belong to the Evangelical Lutheran church. In politics he is non-partisan.

Elijah Austin, farmer, Sublette, was born in upper Canada, January 1820. His father, Norman Austin, and his mother, Sarah Landers, were natives of Connecticut. His ancestors were " Revolutioners," and his father served in the war of 1812. In the fall of 1837 Elijah Austin went to Sandusky, Ohio, thence with wagon to the present site of Galesburg, Illinois, passing through Aurora and Monmouth, then only the germs of towns ; lived in Knox county till 1840, when he went back east. Returning to Knox county', he lived there till 1846, thence to Princeton. In 1849 he made a claim on Sees. 17 and 18, of 152 acres. In 1859 he bought from Henry Hannon 80 acres formerly owned by Daniel Baird, who lived on the old La Salle and Grand De Tour road, where Mr. Austin now resides. The latter owns a large farm in Sees. 17, 18, 19, and a few acres in Sec. 20, besides a hundred acres in Sec. 30. In 1843 Mr. Austin married Sarah Burton, of Hancock county, Illinois. They have a family of seven children living. Abagail, born December 1843 (wife of Nelson Van Fleet, Kansas, son of an old settler in Aurora) ; Mary, born 1845 (Mrs. Joseph Doane, died in 1868) ; Burton, February 1848 (married October 1876, has two children and is farming in Sublette); Elizabeth, May 1850 ; Melissa, September 1852 ; Jane, March 1855 ; Frances A., September 1866; Minnie R., April 1871. The last two are by his second wife, Catherine Austin, to whom he was married September 1863. Elizabeth (Mrs. Blair) is living in Brooklyn township. In politics Mr. Austin is an ex-republican greenbacker, formerly a freesoiler. He is a Mason, a genial neighbor and a kind father.

Silas D. Reniff, farmer, Sublette, born 1816, in Tioga county. New York, is the son of Ephraim and Betsey (Wesson) Reniff, both born in Massachusetts. His grandfather on the father's side was a Scotchman. Ephraim Reniff was a fanner and had a family of eight children. In 1843 he came west, and settled on section 19, where Seth Baird lives. The following year Silas Reniff came out and claimed a half-section of land, one half of which he afterward entered. Tiiis was a 160 in Sec. 20, where he now lives. He owns 2-iO acres of well improved land, upon which tliere are good buildings. In 1849 Mr. Eenifi' was married to Laura Angier, only sister of Thomas Angier. Their issue is a son, Ernest, born September 1855 ; he married Mary Chamberlain, May 1876, by whom he has two boys, Ernest and Laurie, born November, 1877, and June, 1880, respectively. Mr. Reniff has been a very energetic business man, and is now active for one of his age. For many years he has been a general stock dealer and he is now shipping to Chicago. For twenty-seven years he has assessed the town of Sublette, and has been twent}' years school trustee. Before coming west he was eight years a teamster to Boston, driving an eight-horse team about a hundred miles to and from that city. Then and for many years after he was an athletic and daring man, and one with whom it was not safe to trifle. He is a staunch republican and a perfectly reliable man. His father died about 1855 and his mother a few years later.

Thomas S. Angier, farmer and magistrate, Sublette, was born 1822, in Fitzwilliam, Cheshire county, New Hampshire ; he is the son of Abel and Laura (Holmes) Angier, born 1797 and 1801 respectively. His grandparents were born in New England, and his great-grandfather Amidon was in the revolution. His mother died when he was eight years old, and his father seven years later. Thomas, the only son in a family of two children, received a common school education ; was married in 1838, to Fannie, daughter of Benjamin B. and Grata (Whitney) Morse, who was born in New Ham])shire in 1821. Her ancestors, Whitney and Morse were " Revolutioners," and the latter was in the war of 1812. Mr. Angier, with his wife and one child, came west to LaMoille, Bureau county, Illinois, in 1840; thence to Sublette, Lee county, tiie following spring, settling on the N.E. i of Sec. 31, having bought it the year before. Of a family^ of ten children only three survive. In the summer of 1861 his eldest sons, Abel, born in 1838, and Leander in 1841, enlisted in Co. D, 46th 111. Vols. In the winter of 1861-2, before their regiment went south, both were taken sick with diphtheria. Though two others of the family died at this time, they recovered, and were witli Co. D till the fall of 1862, when both were in the hospital at Memphis; there Leander died in September. Abel did not again enter the service, and died of consumption in 1873. Ambrose, third in the family, is married and living on the homestead. In 1874 Mr. Angier moved to the village of Sublette, where he has since lived. He is a man in whom the people have entire confidence, having held some office ever since the organization of the township. In 1851 he was elected justice of the peace, in whicli capacity he has acted ever since. He lias been eighteen years supervisor of Sublette township, and much of that time was chairman of the board of supervisors. Besides these he has held other offices ; he is consequently well acquainted with the development of this township, and to him the writer is indebted for much valuable information. Mr. Angier is a republican and a Mason, and may be very appropriately styled " the oracle of Sublette."

Philip Fauble, farmer, Sublette, was born in Lee county in April 1851. His father, John Fauble, was an early settler in Sublette and acquired a large property. His mother is one of the largest tax-payers in the county. In October, 1877, Philip Fauble married Barbara Pope, of Bureau county. Their family : George L., born June 1879, and Katie, December 1880. He has a farm of 200 acres in Sec. 32. This is known as the William Tourtillott farm. In 1880 Mr. Fauble built a fine barn at a cost of about $1,400. He has a good house and a large orchard. His wnfe owns a quarter-section in Brooklyn township. They are members of the Evangelical church. Our subject received a common school education ; he is a strong republican and a man of pleasing address.

Settlement

SETTLEMENT. A Frenchman named Filamalee is said to have been the first white settler in Palestine Grove and in the present limits of Amboy township. Some of the earlier settlers remember his shanty about a mile south of Rocky Ford, and have not forgotten the mortar made in a burr-oak stump in which he pounded his corn for bread, and which remained for a long time as a relic to mark the first pioneer settlement. He belonged to that unsettled class who were never content to live in any region except where savage dominion was weakening to dissolution, and civilized footsteps chased hard upon the departing race. He could not bear the sight of regular occupation and improvement, and as soon as the tide of immigration set in he moved farther away into the mediate solitude between the red and the white man. In his eulogy upon Daniel Boone the poet Byron spoke not less truly of all his congeners when he said,

Tlie first permanent settler was John Dexter, wlio emigrated from Canada in the spring of 1835, and made a claim on the north side of Palestine Grove, and on the N.W. ^ Sec. 13. Here he built a cabin about twelve feet square, and then went on as fast as he could to add other improvements to his home; in the meantime looking anxiously but waiting patiently for others to come into the neighborhood. It must not be thought that he was a solitary inhabitant ; on the contrary, he had near neighbors east of him at Inlet Grove. But the spring of 1836 brought the second settler, and Dexter, it may be supposed, began to feel that this could not much longer be regarded as the frontier. The new arrival was James Doan and his young wife, now Mrs. O. J. Fish, of China township. He made his claim south of the Inlet, on the place now better known as the Joseph Lewis farm, from having been owned by the latter from 1845 till a recent date. He was from Berrien count}', Michigan, but had been raised in Indiana. His father, John Doan, was a North Carolinian. The latter and his daughter Jemima came with his son, the trip being made by the family in a Pennsylvania wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen. James Doan had visited this place in October 1835, and selected his own as well as a claim for his father and another for his brother Joseph. After a patch of sod corn had been planted John Doan and his daughter returned to Michigan, and in the following autumn the whole family came to their new home. Until their arrival the days passed wearily, and the season was one crowded with painful discontent to Mrs. Doan, and for long weeks at a time she saw no other white person than her own husband. The Indian-trail from Council Bluffs to Chicago lay only a little way off to the south of their cabin, and the camping ground of these roving bands was on the Blunt farm. Large bodies of them often stopped there ; and the Shabbona Indians came nearly as often into the neighborhood to hunt.

Andrew Baintek, brother-in-law to James Doan, arrived in the spring of 1837, and took the claim where Seneca Strickland lives, on the Sublette road. His second house, a frame dwelling, was the one which has been improved and is now occupied by Benjamin Treadwell. The next and most important addition to the infant community was Asa B. Scarles, who arrived in October 1837, with a horse-team, from New York, and was accompanied from Peoria by Benjamin Wasson, another New Yorker, who had been here the year before and taken a claim on Sees. 14 and 15. Mr. Searles located the S. ^ Sec. 14, on which, several years later, he laid out the village of Binghamton. Nathan Meek was living in the vicinity of Rocky Ford as early as 1837. His name will recall to the old settlers many suspicious circumstances and an unsavory reputation, all suggesting the operations of the banditti. His " corn-cracker," situated three miles down the stream, was the first mill for grinding in Lee county. He sometimes attempted to make flour, but it was always of execrable quality.

On Mr. Searle's first arrival he found a saw-mill in operation at Rocky Ford, owned by Timothy Perkins and Horace Bowen, and when he finally came with his family, on Christmas eve in the same year, it had become the property of a man named Lee. Ho kept it awhile and sold out to Mason ; the latter died, and it passed into the hands of John Van Norman, from whom it was purchased in 1848 by F. R. Duteher. A log-dam spanned the stream, and the mill was run by a "flutter" wheel. One Mitchell was millwright.

James Blair and his sons "William, Winthrop, and Edwin were pioneers of 1837. The latter has the old homestead on Sec. 29. The same year John S. Sawyer and four sons erected a cabin south of the Illinois Central shops. Sawyer sold a part of his claim to Joseph Farwell in 1841, and the rest to Joseph Appleton.

Alexander Janes also became a resident, but the next year sold his claim to Chester S. Badger and moved to Bureau county, where he acquired wealth and an honorable reputation. Mr. Badger was from Broome county. New York, and came to Illinois and worked at millwrighting during the season of 1837, and returned home in the fall ; the following year he and his son Simon settled in this township, and in 1839 Warren, another son, arrived, bringing the mother and her two daughters Sarah and Roena. In the autumn Warren returned to his native home, remaining there until 1842, when he came west ao-ain and resided in Amboy township until his death in 1861. Chester Badger, a younger son, drove through from New York alone with a two-horse team in 1840, and has been a resident here since. The Badgers located their homesteads about a mile and a half east of Amboy. Henrj' Badger came in 1849, and has always lived in Binghamton. The senior Badger brought hardwood lumber from Franklin Grove and built the first frame house in the settlement. A party consisting of John C. Church, Curtis Bridgman and his sons Curtis and Urial, and Wm. Hunt, the three last unmarried men, arrived in midsummer of 1838. The senior Bridgman returned to Steuben county. New York, in the following autumn and brought the remainder of the family. Mr. Church selected a claim one mile south of Amboy, but in 1841 sold to Jacob Doan, wlio immigrated from Ohio that year, and secured another where he is now living, adjoining the northern limits of the city. Wm. Church settled here a little later the same season that his brother did ; he lived in this vicinity until twenty years ago, when he removed to Iowa. The year 1838 must be credited with another valuable citizen in the person of Martin Wright, from the

Bay State, who lived in the remote northeast corner of the townsliip. He was a large-hearted, liberal-minded, just man, and enjoyed in the highest degree the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens. He served them as assessor, and many years as road commissioner, and died about a year ago. His widow survives. Harvey A.xtell settled in the southwest corner of the township; Frederick Baldwin on Sec. 10, wiiere James Luce lives; and Ransom Barnes opened the Isaac Gage farm. The two latter were from the Empire State, and the three belong to 1838.

Frederick Bainter came into the Doan neighborhood in the same season. John Fosdick settled at Lee Center a year earlier, and worked at his trade of blacksmithing, assisted by James Doan, another craftsman, until tlie next s])ring, when the shop was moved to Doan's. This was the first smithy in Ambo}' township. After a residence liere of three years, Fosdick went back to Lee Center. Doan and Frederick Bainter afterward carried on blacksmithing sometime together; the former invented and the two manufactured the first scouring plow ever used in these parts, but for some reason Doan's efforts failed to secure a patent. He visited Washington for that purpose as early as 18il or 1842 ; si.x or seven years later he sold his interest to his partner, and in 1849 went to California, where in 1853 he was murdered. To the pioneers the mention of this scouring plow will bring back the recollection of the hardships and inferiority of farming in those days, when the wooden moldboard plow and the wooden tooth harrow wore the standard implements for preparing the ground for seed. The harvest was gathered with the hand sickle, a diminutive instrument which very few of to-day could recognize, and the cradle, a great improvement on the back-breaking sickle, which is now hardly more to be seen. Then the grain was spread upon the ground in a circle and tramped out with horses or oxen ; the winnowing was done in the wind, which, thanks to the open prairie, was seldom too low to be available at any moment ; and next followed the really romantic part of the season's work - hauling to Chicago, a hundred miles, the grain which brought but thirty or forty cents per bushel. Pork commanded from §1.25 to $2 per hundred. It will not escape attention that the virgin soil when once subdued, a task to accomplish which was no light labor with the tools then in use, produced good crops with little care. It has been said that to " tickle it with a plow it would laugh with a crop," and "Chet" Badger affirms that " tickling" was about all it received. It must have been so if he could plow five acres a day with an ox team. In less reverent sections of the country such treatment of the soil would be called " deviling."

which were a few sparing comforts, - perhaps a pail, a pound of tea, a little coffee and some "factory," a few nails, a barrel of salt, and occasionally a jag of lumber ; but rarely did one journey suffice to purchase so many needful articles. Will the reader suppose that these early settlers were chained to a hard lot ? Far from that was their condition. Although they were mostly poor and toiled hard, yet their surroundings were such as to take the sting from poverty ; for there was no " society " with its absurd conventionalities, and they found that labor stimulated an appetite devoid of fault, and inclined them always to health and refreshing slumber.

Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions j Because their thoughts had never been the prey Of selfish care or gain ; the wilds were their portions. No sinking spirits told them they grew gray. No fashion made them apes of her distortions.

***** Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers; And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil; Nor yet too many, nor too few their numbers ; Corruption could not make their hearts her soil. The lust which stings, the splendor which encumbers, With the free pioneers divide no spoil."

All within a radius of many iniles were neighbors; friendship and equality prevailed, and selfishness was as rare in those times as the noble qualities we have named are in these. Mutual dependence fostered a spirit of true sympathy, and every hand was ready and never forgot to assist, either in the smaller or the greater offices of kindness. No man or woman could excuse himself or herself from neighborly acts, nor would they Iiave done so if they could. Such meanness would have been equivalent to banishment from the community. Neither was hospitality limited to friends, for it would not then have been hospitality, but it was extended even to the stranger, whom they greeted with thrilling welcome, smiles of joy, goodly cheer, and for whom they made a ready place of comfort at their glowing hearthstones and plain, but tidy boards. In the broadest humanitj' they asked, "Who is my neighbor*" Not like "a certain lawyer," " willing to justify himself;" but to answer only as the unhampered soul in its natural vigor can, just as the Great Master taught. The desire to secure emigrants was very great, and every inducement in the form of entertainment, and assistance to find claims, was tendered to those who proposed to become actual settlers ; and some went so far as to divide their own claims to secure near neighbors. It should be recorded of Mr. Searles that he was conspicuous for his efforts in this direction. In a i'ew years population became comparatively numerous. Work on the old Central railroad was an instrument which added not a little to the increase. The failure of that mammoth enterprise left some laborers too poor to get away, while otiiers were too much pleased with the country to depart.

In 1839 Cyrus Davis and his son Cyrus A., Massachusetts men, improved a home on the S.E. J Sec. 15 ; this land is now Wyman's addition to Amboy. In 1840 John Hook and his brother William and their parents, all from Maine, located tlieir home at Rocky Ford in the month of February. Aaron Ilook, another son, had emigrated to Bureau county two years before. Reuben Bridgman began an improvement on Sec. 10 in 1840. Joseph Farwell came in 1841 and settled on the N.E. ^ Sec. 22. On this tract the original plat of Amboy was located. Jesse Hale arrived in 1841 ; and Samuel Bixby, a " Green Mountain Boy," emigrated from Steuben county, New York, in 1844, and bought the claim of Joseph Gardner. Lyman Bi.xby migrated to these parts the same year.

Joseph Appleton came to thecountry asearh- as 1841 or 1842; subsequently he returned to his native state of New Hampsiiire, married, and in 1844 brought his family and settled on the E. i of N.W. ^ Sec. 22. This is now Giison's addition to Amboy. Josiah Davis, brother to Cyrus, improved the W. ^ of N.W. ^ Sec. 22 about the same year of Appleton's final settlement.

Frances H. North way removed to this township in 1844 and entered the S.E. i Sec. 3. Orres Adams came with his family the same year, also David Searles and Alvan H. Thompson. Hiel Lewis reached this place from Pennsylvania in 1842, and Miles and Joseph in 1845.

In 1846 Seth W. Holmes entered the E. i of S.W. i Sec. 9, where he has since resided. Elijah and Warren Hill joined the settlement in the same year; and Henry C. Shaw came to Binghamton and engaged in the manufacture of the Doan plow.

In 1849 John M. Blocher settled north of Amboy, where the Shaw heirs now live. The Blunt farm was opened ver}- early by a man named Hawley, who stayed a short time and then removed to another neighborhood.

Squatters' Association

Until the fall of 1844, when the first land sales were held at Dixon, the inhabitants of Amboy township (the reader will understand that for convenience we use names by anticipation) were squatters. The country had been surveyed into townships but not into sections; and when the last survey took place a general rectifying of lines occurred ; not unfrequently the partition divided a claim in twain, and then would follow a trade with a neighboring squatter, one or the other perhaps taking up a new location.